MATEI NEGREANU
"Carving light through glass."
Before us, a controlled exuberance, a silent confrontation, an explosive affinity, where volumes meet lines in an explosive serenity.
Like a conductor, a lighting designer, Matei Negreanu seems to sculpt the voids more than the solids, the confrontations and agreements more than the materials.
Glass is thus the main instrument that Matei Negreanu comes to make vibrate with other materials to create symphonic variations without measures. Opacity meets transparency without chance, in an absolute balance where light intrudes with a certain whimsy without hesitation. The interactions are laid bare, made visible by the material: glass.
Julie Dalouche - 2018
"The image of the "Glass to Dream" fades away in front of the practice of the same material, capable of translating more precise intentions."
GLASS
The glass, symbol of clarity, purity, sensitivity... and here someone approaches it brutally, using hammer and point, breaking pieces, cracking it, shattering it with a diamond saw, like a drill, carving lines inside that seem like bloody wounds.
He uses violence on the cold and smooth block of glass, seeming to mutilate it until it becomes unrecognizable. Is it an act of aggression, of protest? A vehement negation of the beauty of the material, a challenge to the usual vision?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
For those who take a second look, the evidence is clear: here, nothing is left to chance, not even the unpredictability of the violent gesture.
"A work of art can only be read through successive deepening."
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
"In the game of symbols and interpretations, where our unconscious mind proves to be not very adaptable, it is important to choose our own level of reading of the artwork, especially for glass/lead sculptures. Their external form and their relation to the environment extend into the opening of a second, interior space, defined by the lead walls and the cuts of the saw.
The initial impression of violence dissipates as observation becomes more precise: the true nature of these works emerges more and more distinctly.
The fractures and breakages take on a character of inexorable logic, appearing to be consciously employed means of guiding light and creating bodies containing light. What remains is the effect of dynamics, of agitating force. This force is positive, filling the structure rather than attacking it."
THE YIN & THE YANG
After this series of "waves" with an inherently Yin character, the Yang soon emerges in the form of the "Columns of Jupiter" and other untitled works, leaving no doubt about their perfectly phallic nature: lingams.
"It is obvious to say that it is this desire to go further that makes true artists."
CONTINUITY
Abstract and proudly so, Matei Negreanu's work is undoubtedly so, even if it does not completely exclude all forms of representation.
Could one go so far as to say that it participates in an abstract expressionist tradition, in the vein of Chilida or Louise Bourgeois? Perhaps.
In any case, the body, the gestural, and the direct attack on the material play a fundamental role in the development of his pieces, and most of them have a calligraphic quality that would reinforce this thesis.
There is always a limit that Matei Negreanu does not hesitate to cross, that of imagination. As soon as he reaches the end of a road, he never lingers, he takes a new one.
In the end, that's how he has always lived, how he has envisioned life, exile.
A way of standing, of looking forward, of searching and often finding.
"The one who works with glass is necessarily confronted with randomness."
GESTURE
Playing with the properties of glass with great dexterity, Matei Negreanu provokes and encourages encounters between lines, shapes, and materials, almost amusing himself with their reactions to the numerous constraints that glass imposes on him.
His favorite tool becomes an inexhaustible playmate that he pushes to its limits and tests beyond them: the greater the constraint, the closer the freedom of the gesture.
Above all, it is the sculptor's gesture, this incessant search that takes shape, a somewhat mysterious form that does not tell us stories, but rather reveals itself without excessive language, without subtitles; the lines, the volumes are given to our gaze in an absolute way.
THE UNIVERSE
As a draftsman, colorist, and sculptor, Matei Negreanu has a keen sense of artistry and creates a dreamlike universe with a poetic softness that resonates despite the robustness of the materials. He seeks to amplify the perceptual sensation, blending abstraction, color, geometric shapes, and lines to produce a sense of strangeness. His poetry is tinted with rare shades of pink, gray, and green.
He enjoys discovering new techniques, new approaches to glass, and above all, he loves to evolve forms. He wants to try everything and always move forward. Over time, his work gradually changes while maintaining a certain coherence. He only does what is in line with his experience: he searches, he finds, he dares, he realizes.
"Carving light through glass."
